The Euro-Socialist Death Spiral

In a small but telling incident, a German journalist accosted a Tea Partier at the Supreme Court on the day the ObamaCare case was being decided. The German upbraided the Tea Party movement for opposing government-run health care. His tone was the standard condescension for enlightened Euro-moralizing about -- well, everything, but especially socialized medicine -- for the benefit of benighted Americans. In short, he behaved like an average Democrat.An old fable describes the attitude of "civilized" Euro-Socialists -- and their U.S. counterparts, the Democrats -- toward the United States. A genie appears to two peasants and grants each a wish. The first wishes for a beautiful prize cow. The second, envying his neighbor's coming prosperity, wishes for the cow to drop dead on the spot.

Instead of getting their own cow, our "betters" keep wishing for ours to die. The Democrats eagerly agree, forcibly herding Americans into the Euro-Socialist death spiral -- for our own good, of course. Government knows best. This is especially of our health care system.

According to the German journalist -- echoing American liberals -- it is time for the USA to join the family of civilized nations by providing universal government-run health care. The current enlightened view among the really, really, REALLY smart people (by definition, Euro-Socialists only) is that no country is civilized unless its health care system is 100% government-run. The barbaric U.S. health care system is so horrifyingly terrible, in fact, that people from the "civilized" world routinely buy our pharmaceuticals and come here for life-saving treatment.

To his German self-styled moral superior, the Tea Partier responded that European nations with government-run socialized medicine can't afford their own social models; even Germany, itself, runs a deficit equal to 3 percent of GDP. The German reporter turned on his heel and walked away. Being an enlightened leftist means never having to acknowledge inconvenient truths.

A more effective, if politically incorrect (i.e., too devastatingly true for enlightened leftists to tolerate), occurred to the Tea Partier later: Germany had government-run universal healthcare at the same time they were herding six million Jews into ovens. Universal healthcare equals "civilized?" Lucky for the Euro-Socialist crowd, facts never interfere with propaganda.

• Germany. Parents who home-school their children are subject to arrest and prison, the children subject to seizure by the state. The Romeike family emigrated to the United States to escape such oppression, and were granted asylum. But the German authorities want to make an example of the Romeikes by extraditing them to Germany to face trial and jail. The "civilized" Obama administration is working feverishly to revoke the Romeikes' asylum and deport them to Germany.

• Canada. Canadians are highly chauvinistic about their socialized medicine. "You Americans," they love to jeer, often shortly after making a new American acquaintance, "have a terrible health-care system!" (Pleased to meet you, too.) They praise their own system to the heavens, one so wonderfully awesome that Canadians routinely come to the U.S.A. for life-saving treatment. Like the premier (equivalent to a U.S. state governor) of Newfoundland and Labrador ditched Toronto and had heart surgery in Florida. Or a former cabinet minister (equivalent to a U.S. cabinet secretary) who came to California for cancer treatment -- at her Canadian doctor's suggestion. Just like all those times important Americans go to Canada for cancer treatment and heart surgery -- oh, wait. That never happens.

• Great Britain. When Britain banned handguns in 1997, home invasions went through the roof. A home invasion is criminal entry to ransack a house while its occupants are present. Since it's a crime for law-abiding citizens to be armed, many people took to sleeping with hammers and baseball bats. (A sophomoric "humor" website found this hilarious.) In a Daily Telegraph web-poll, ignored by the elites, Britons overwhelmingly favor lifting the ban.

• While we're talking about Great Britain and weapons, a long jail term awaits anyone who falls afoul of Britain's restrictive and baffling knife laws. Even better: the cops -- not the courts -- determine a knife's legality. It's illegal to buy many knives available in a U.S. sporting goods store. Sleeping with hammers and cricket bats seems even less funny.

• Europe, in general, Great Britain specifically: bad teeth. Many Britons feel defensive and love to sneer at what they characterize as Americans' ridiculous obsession with dental health. Long-standing research shows that good dental health is important for overall health. Apparently, government-run health care miraculously negates science.

• Germany again. The 2011 tsunami in Japan caused a disaster at a Japanese nuclear power plant. Germany's powerful radical environmentalists pounced, and the German government began shutting down nuke plants as fast as they could, Germany apparently being vulnerable (who knew?) to tsunami and major earthquakes. Slight problem: nukes produced close to 25% of Germany's power, and there is now something of an energy crisis. Whoopsie.

• Europe, Summer 2003. Some 70,000 people, the majority of them elderly, perished in hot weather, almost 15,000 of them in uber-enlightened, uber-socialist France. Our infinitely more civilized European brethren shrug: we aren't used to heat, darn that Global Warming! (Or is it Global Cooling? Climate Change?) Tens of thousands of old folks baking to death -- very sad and all that, but let's not get distracted from the real crisis -- Global Warming! (Or whatever we're calling it this week.) Thought experiment: change the location to the U.S. (Hint: a decade later, the media would still be condemning the then-Republican president and Congress.)

• Great Britain again. Earlier this year, a cold snap killed 2,500, most of them pensioners -- i.e., senior citizens. Each year, winter weather kills well over 20,000 Britons, most of them elderly. Environmental taxes have made utilities unaffordable. Big government caused the mess, so of course big government has a solution: utility-bill grants -- i.e., welfare. (Obamacare also promises an "allowance" -- i.e., welfare -- for insurance premium costs. Hmmm.)

There we have it, life in the ultra-civilized, morally-advanced, non-American world, by definition totally superior to America because of government-run medicine. Membership in this elite bestows not just the blessings of DMV-style health care, but also the sophisticated societal conditions described above.

No, thanks.

Mark Petrina is a member of the Obama Care Truth Squad (obamacaretruthsquad.com), an advocacy group that seeks the repeal of Obamacare and the introduction of free-market health care solutions.

In a small but telling incident, a German journalist accosted a Tea Partier at the Supreme Court on the day the ObamaCare case was being decided. The German upbraided the Tea Party movement for opposing government-run health care. His tone was the standard condescension for enlightened Euro-moralizing about -- well, everything, but especially socialized medicine -- for the benefit of benighted Americans. In short, he behaved like an average Democrat.

An old fable describes the attitude of "civilized" Euro-Socialists -- and their U.S. counterparts, the Democrats -- toward the United States. A genie appears to two peasants and grants each a wish. The first wishes for a beautiful prize cow. The second, envying his neighbor's coming prosperity, wishes for the cow to drop dead on the spot.

Instead of getting their own cow, our "betters" keep wishing for ours to die. The Democrats eagerly agree, forcibly herding Americans into the Euro-Socialist death spiral -- for our own good, of course. Government knows best. This is especially of our health care system.

According to the German journalist -- echoing American liberals -- it is time for the USA to join the family of civilized nations by providing universal government-run health care. The current enlightened view among the really, really, REALLY smart people (by definition, Euro-Socialists only) is that no country is civilized unless its health care system is 100% government-run. The barbaric U.S. health care system is so horrifyingly terrible, in fact, that people from the "civilized" world routinely buy our pharmaceuticals and come here for life-saving treatment.

To his German self-styled moral superior, the Tea Partier responded that European nations with government-run socialized medicine can't afford their own social models; even Germany, itself, runs a deficit equal to 3 percent of GDP. The German reporter turned on his heel and walked away. Being an enlightened leftist means never having to acknowledge inconvenient truths.

A more effective, if politically incorrect (i.e., too devastatingly true for enlightened leftists to tolerate), occurred to the Tea Partier later: Germany had government-run universal healthcare at the same time they were herding six million Jews into ovens. Universal healthcare equals "civilized?" Lucky for the Euro-Socialist crowd, facts never interfere with propaganda.

• Germany. Parents who home-school their children are subject to arrest and prison, the children subject to seizure by the state. The Romeike family emigrated to the United States to escape such oppression, and were granted asylum. But the German authorities want to make an example of the Romeikes by extraditing them to Germany to face trial and jail. The "civilized" Obama administration is working feverishly to revoke the Romeikes' asylum and deport them to Germany.

• Canada. Canadians are highly chauvinistic about their socialized medicine. "You Americans," they love to jeer, often shortly after making a new American acquaintance, "have a terrible health-care system!" (Pleased to meet you, too.) They praise their own system to the heavens, one so wonderfully awesome that Canadians routinely come to the U.S.A. for life-saving treatment. Like the premier (equivalent to a U.S. state governor) of Newfoundland and Labrador ditched Toronto and had heart surgery in Florida. Or a former cabinet minister (equivalent to a U.S. cabinet secretary) who came to California for cancer treatment -- at her Canadian doctor's suggestion. Just like all those times important Americans go to Canada for cancer treatment and heart surgery -- oh, wait. That never happens.

• Great Britain. When Britain banned handguns in 1997, home invasions went through the roof. A home invasion is criminal entry to ransack a house while its occupants are present. Since it's a crime for law-abiding citizens to be armed, many people took to sleeping with hammers and baseball bats. (A sophomoric "humor" website found this hilarious.) In a Daily Telegraph web-poll, ignored by the elites, Britons overwhelmingly favor lifting the ban.

• While we're talking about Great Britain and weapons, a long jail term awaits anyone who falls afoul of Britain's restrictive and baffling knife laws. Even better: the cops -- not the courts -- determine a knife's legality. It's illegal to buy many knives available in a U.S. sporting goods store. Sleeping with hammers and cricket bats seems even less funny.

• Europe, in general, Great Britain specifically: bad teeth. Many Britons feel defensive and love to sneer at what they characterize as Americans' ridiculous obsession with dental health. Long-standing research shows that good dental health is important for overall health. Apparently, government-run health care miraculously negates science.

• Germany again. The 2011 tsunami in Japan caused a disaster at a Japanese nuclear power plant. Germany's powerful radical environmentalists pounced, and the German government began shutting down nuke plants as fast as they could, Germany apparently being vulnerable (who knew?) to tsunami and major earthquakes. Slight problem: nukes produced close to 25% of Germany's power, and there is now something of an energy crisis. Whoopsie.

• Europe, Summer 2003. Some 70,000 people, the majority of them elderly, perished in hot weather, almost 15,000 of them in uber-enlightened, uber-socialist France. Our infinitely more civilized European brethren shrug: we aren't used to heat, darn that Global Warming! (Or is it Global Cooling? Climate Change?) Tens of thousands of old folks baking to death -- very sad and all that, but let's not get distracted from the real crisis -- Global Warming! (Or whatever we're calling it this week.) Thought experiment: change the location to the U.S. (Hint: a decade later, the media would still be condemning the then-Republican president and Congress.)

• Great Britain again. Earlier this year, a cold snap killed 2,500, most of them pensioners -- i.e., senior citizens. Each year, winter weather kills well over 20,000 Britons, most of them elderly. Environmental taxes have made utilities unaffordable. Big government caused the mess, so of course big government has a solution: utility-bill grants -- i.e., welfare. (Obamacare also promises an "allowance" -- i.e., welfare -- for insurance premium costs. Hmmm.)

There we have it, life in the ultra-civilized, morally-advanced, non-American world, by definition totally superior to America because of government-run medicine. Membership in this elite bestows not just the blessings of DMV-style health care, but also the sophisticated societal conditions described above.

No, thanks.

Mark Petrina is a member of the Obama Care Truth Squad (obamacaretruthsquad.com), an advocacy group that seeks the repeal of Obamacare and the introduction of free-market health care solutions.